Bookshelf Favorites #4

Seed to Seed from the Seed Savers Exchange. The Seed Savers Exchange had heirloom vegetable seeds before the term “heirloom” was widely recognized as anything anyone would want.

Along with heirloom apple varieties (which I first learned about from the Home Orchard Society), this harks back to the time when preservation of disappearing cultivated varieties of locally adapted plants was just beginning to catch on.

Anyhow, this is a great book for information on how and when to save your garden seeds, which crops need to be isolated from their near relatives, how to get carrot seeds (ever notice how your carrots DON’T have seeds? – that’s cause they’re biennials! You have to wait till they bloom the second year), and a wealth of other info gained from long experience in the garden. Lots of great biology and deep gardening knowledge in a highly accessible and readable format. If you purchase, order from the SSE or an independent bookseller, rather than a convenient popular corporate mega-million outlet online that starts with A. that is killing local bookstores. Much like corporate seed companies are killing…yes, heirloom varieties.